Scenes from my garden

Scenes around Johannesburg Gauteng S.A.

Suburbs eight kilometers south of Johannesburg.

How to hybridize a rose

COVER emasculated flower with bag so no pollen will be carried to it by insects or wind.
MAKE CROSS later, when stigmas are sticky. Cut flower having pollen-laden stamens, remove petals, rub stamens onto stigmas of prepared bloom, replace bag for week. If successful, ovary will swell.

COVER emasculated flower with bag so no pollen will be carried to it by insects or wind.

How to hybridize a rose

TO HYBRIDIZE, select a 1/2 flower shows pollen-bearing open bloom, remove petals male stamens, female stigmas, and pull off stamens to and unfertilized seeds. prevent self-pollination

How to hybridize a rose

CROSS SECTION of rose flower shows pollen-bearing male stamens, female stigmas and unfertilized seed

Growing the seedlings

Here again-as with seed planting-you have a choice of two basic ways to handle the seedlings: indoors or out. Traditionally, rose seedlings would unfurl their first blooms in greenhouses, but this was done mostly to beat the often miserable spring weather in England and parts of France where so much hybridizing was (and still is) going on. A greenhouse still is quite satisfactory but by no means necessary. You can just as easily flower seedlings indoors in a sunny window or under artificial light.
Any of these indoor methods are most popular with hybridizers living where long and cold winters make the growing season short. A bush hybrid tea seedling may bloom as early as 6 weeks from germination (climbers and old rose seedlings may take 2-3 years), so cold-climate gardeners can flower rose seedlings during winter and early spring before roses outside even have new growth. This gives seedlings the advantage of a long growing season the first year. During this period, the hybridizer has a chance to evaluate new plants early, then again on second and even third blooming, before the season is over. As soon as spring frost danger is past, you can move your seedlings outside. Protect them from wind and direct sunlight for about a week, until they adjust to the outdoor atmosphere. If you wish to try them under artificial lights, use the 40-watt fluorescent tubes made especially for growing indoor plants. A two-tube fixture is satisfactory, a four-tube one even more so because of its better light distribution. Locate the lights about 6 inches above the containers in which the seedlings are growing, and leave the lights on for 16 hours each day.
Where winters are relatively mild, there's not as much to be gained by flowering the seedlings indoors. If you wish, you can prepare your seed beds outside. Just a raised bed with light, fast-draining soil could do for both germination and first flowering; although to save space you might want to germinate in flats or pots and transplant to the raised beds.
Damping off-a fungus which rots young seedlings at soil level-can plague seedlings of almost any plant. This is the reason for using sterilized soil and clean containers. As an added precaution, you may want to dust the seeds with captan before planting. Should any seedlings damp off, water the seed flats or pots with a fungicide solution or dust with captan. Mildew may bother seedlings, especially those grown outdoors.
Any seedlings you select may make fairly thrifty plants by their second or third year in your garden. But the only way you will be able to compare them fairly with commercially produced roses is to bud your seedlings onto one of the standard commercial under stocks. Sometimes you will notice improved blooms on your budded plants and you may get a larger, more vigorous bush.